First, my short biography:
- born in 1976, Kiev, Ukraine
- 1998 – came to United States (Dallas, Texas)
- 2004 – earned Ph.D. in Neuroscience
- 2007 to current – a high school science teacher
I started this web site in 2012, on my summer vacation from school. I was about to start a comprehensive diet and exercise program, and also wanted to be able to share my story with others. Having an on-line presence was an obvious choice. I teach for living, and this is my chance to teach whoever is interested in changing to healthy lifestyle. This website also has another goal — it is a business experiment. Eventually, I do expect to make money with it, one way or another. I will definitely share that part of the story as well.
I also consider this website something even more important for me personally, more important than the informational or business side of it. This website really is my experiment in self-discovery.
Everybody has to discovery himself. I almost want to declare self-discovery a goal of human existence. Think about it: it you are very good in music, but never tried playing any instrument, wouldn’t that be sad? Now, if you first tried playing guitar at 42 and wrote you first song at 45 wouldn’t that be great? Even if you do not become a successful musician, wouldn’t you feel like the happiest person on earth for the rest of your years? Because now you know where your happiness is hidden. You know where to look for it. Whether you get there or not really does not matter. What matters is that now your life as a process has a goal.
Most people, as I realize now, are unhappy, because they do not even know what is going to make them happy. They think they do, but in reality they do not! Because they have never discovered themselves. Their life is full of activities that they have imposed on themselves mostly by falling into societal propaganda, but as a whole, it is similar to looking for a treasure hidden in a desert by randomly digging anywhere. If you have a map and know where treasure is hidden, wouldn’t this make your life more purposeful?
There is a little trick here though. I am talking about me “having discovered myself” as an accomplished thing but it is not totally correct. Self-discovery never stops. I remember that when I decided to become a scientist at age 6 I thought I had discovered myself too. I went from Ukraine to America, from speaking Russian to English to Spanish, from playing guitar to fixing cars, from a research scientist to a teacher, from smoking a pack a day to this website about health, and so on. It really never stops. How can I put this all together? Maybe like this:
I have self-discovered that never ending self-discovery makes me incredibly happy and give my existence a purpose.
I also would like to mention several on-line webpreneurs who were my inspirations. They are really my role models. All of them started from ground zero and developed successful online businesses. They tell their stories in very different fields, and at the same time have a lot in common: you can feel their flourishing personality speaking through whatever they do.
Here is the list:
I do not necessarily agree or like everything that each of these individuals is doing, but rather the process of how they do what they do. Now, the last thing I want you to do is to immediately leave my site and visit theirs. But to acknowledge them is a matter of honor – those individuals influenced me greatly and I have learned a great deal from them, or part of them that is online. I do not personally know any of them, and that is good; otherwise I would be biased into liking or disliking them. (Well, I am probably biased into liking Lisa a little bit because of her beautiful smile).
What is common between all these people is that they are all real, true creators.
